Pittsburgh-based health insurance provider Highmark has honored hospitals in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware for delivering quality affordable care.
Health care facilities that were shown to deliver improved patient safety and better health outcomes, based on objective measures developed with input from the medical community, were designated as a Blue Distinction Center or Blue Distinction Center in maternity and cardiac care.
“Our goal with the Blue Distinction Centers and Blue Distinction Centers for Specialty Care program is to identify hospitals in our service area that deliver higher overall quality and positive patient outcomes for a specific area of specialty care, such as cardiac care or maternity care,” said Marylou Buyse, senior medical director for Highmark. “This helps our members, and all local residents, make more informed health care decisions, especially in the important areas of cardiac and maternity care.”
A number of Greater Lehigh Valley hospitals were recognized with the designation:
• Easton Hospital in Easton, Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care and Cardiac Care.
• Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care and Cardiac Care.
• Lehigh Valley Hospital – Muhlenberg in Bethlehem, Blue Distinction for Center Cardiac Care.
• Reading Hospital in West Reading, Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care and Cardiac Care.
• Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown, Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care.
• Schuylkill Medical Center – South Jackson Street in Pottsville, Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care.
• Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading, Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care.
• St. Luke’s Hospital in Fountain Hill, Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care and Cardiac Care.
• St. Luke’s Hospital – Allentown Campus, Blue Distinction Center , Maternity Care.
The Maternity Care designation is a new designation under the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program and evaluates hospitals on several quality measures, including the percentage of newborns that fall into the category of early elective delivery, an ongoing concern in the medical community.
To receive a Blue Distinction Center for Cardiac Care designation, a hospital must demonstrate its expertise in delivering safe and effective cardiac care, focusing on cardiac valve surgery, coronary artery bypass graft and percutaneous coronary interventions episodes of care.
